Application of glycol methacrylate to histology sections of the eye and cochlea.

The eye and cochlea are difficult tissues to be processed for histology sections without artifacts. Selection of embedding material is of primary importance to minimize common artifact such as retinal detachment which occurs frequently in the eye embedded in paraffin. The cochlea is frequently processed using celloidin as an embedding material. The celloidin section is, however, generally thick and requires a long time to polymerize. Glycol methacrylate (GMA) is a water soluble resin and has recently been widely used as an embedding material for various tissues. In the present study, a qualitative comparison was made on histology sections when the eye of rat and the cochlea of guinea pig are embedded in paraffin and GMA. The eye and cochlea were immediately fixed in combined fixative of formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde solution. The cochlea was then decalcified in EDTA solution. The tissues were dehydrated in a graded alcohol, and embedded either in paraffin or in GMA resin which was polymerized for 4 hours at room temperature. The sections were cut at 3 and 5 microns for the eye and cochlea, respectively, and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. In place of paraffin, use of glycol methacrylate resulted in superior histology sections.